The Immortal's Quest
by BluePoweradeManiac12
Summary: What if Percy hadn't declined Zeus's offer of immortality, but not because he wanted to, but because he had to in order to protect the people he loved most? What would keep him tied to the mortal world when he's no longer mortal? My guess would be on a certain blond girl with stormy grey eyes. Set during and directly after TLO. R&R.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: To start, I don't own Percy Jackson, that's Rick Riordan you're thinking about. This is the first Percy Jackson fanfiction I've ever written, but I've had the idea for this story swimming around my head for a very long time, so I hope you enjoy it. And don't forget to read and review either because that helps my heart (and the story) go on. Did I just quote Celine Dion? Yes, yes I did. Okay, on with the story.**

 **Chapter 1: The Beginning**  
 **(because every story has to start somewhere)**

Hello, my name is Percy Jackson, and up until my sixteenth birthday, I was just like any other demigod – just trying to make it past puberty. I thought that living long enough to fulfill a Great Prophecy was going to be the biggest surprise, event, whatever-you-want-to-call-it of my sixteenth birthday. I was wrong…

" _The Council agrees," Zeus said. "Percy Jackson, you will have one gift from the gods."_

 _I hesitated. "Any gift?"_

 _Zeus nodded grimly. "I know what you will ask. The greatest gift of all. Yes, if you want it, it shall be yours. The gods have not bestowed this gift on a mortal hero in many centuries, but, Perseus Jackson – if you wish it – you shall be made a god. Immortal. Undying. You shall serve as your father's lieutenant for all time."_

 _I stared at him, stunned. "Um…a god?"_

 _Zeus rolled his eyes. "A dimwitted god, apparently. But yes. With the consensus of the entire Council, I can make you immortal. Then I will have to put up with you forever."_

" _Hmm," Ares mused. "That means I can smash him to a pulp as often as I want, and he'll just keep coming back for more. I like this idea."_

" _I approve as well," Athena said, though she was looking at Annabeth._

 _I glanced back. Annabeth was trying not to meet my eyes. Her face was pale. I flashed back to two years ago, when I thought she was going to take the pledge to Artemis and become a Hunter. I'd been on the edge of a panic attack, thinking I'd lose her. Now, she looked pretty much the same way._

 _I thought about the Three Fates, and the way I'd seen my life flash by. I could avoid all that. No aging, no death, no body in the grave. I could be a teenager forever, in top condition, powerful, and immortal, serving my father. I could have power and eternal life._

 _Who could refuse that?_

 _Then I looked at Annabeth again. I thought about my friends from camp: Charles Beckendorf, Michael Yew, Silena Beauregard, and so many more who were now dead. I thought about Ethan Nakamura and Luke._

 _And I knew what to do._

" _No-"_

Everything stopped.

I looked around the room, surprised to find everyone frozen in place.

"What in Hades-"

"Percy Jackson, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" a distinct masculine voice behind me mused.

"Apollo," I said, doing a quick 180 degree turn to face him. "Why did you freeze everyone? How did you freeze everyone?"

"I got help," Apollo said simply, as if that simple statement would answer all of my questions. "Here's the thing Perce, you have to become a god".

I looked at him, stunned for a second before I bounced back.

"Apollo, no offense, but I don't want to be a god. In fact, I was just about to say that when you went all Frozone on this place," I told the sun god, waving my hand around for emphasis.

"I know you were going to deny becoming a god. That's why I had to stop you before that happened".

"But why would you stop me?" I asked, confused.

"Percy," Apollo said, suddenly becoming more serious than I'd ever seen him. "You know first-hand about the pain and destruction that Great Prophecies bring, correct?"

I nodded my head. I knew better than anyone.

"If you deny becoming a god, you will trigger a series of events that will lead to another Great Prophecy".

"But wait, how do you expect to prevent a Great Prophecy?" I asked. I'd tried preventing fate before, and I knew for a fact that it would only end badly.

"I'm not trying to prevent the Great Prophecy," Apollo said slowly, as if talking to a small child. "I'm trying to delay it".

"Delay it?" I asked, skeptically.

"Think about it Percy. Do you remember back when my baby sister Thalia joined Artemis's Hunters?"

"And it directly affected the Great Prophecy to being about me," I recalled.

"Exactly," Apollo said. "Look Percy, I understand that you have your own reasons for wanting to stay mortal," he told me, but he wasn't looking at me, he was looking at something behind me.

When I turned around, I was surprised to see that it was Annabeth he was looking at with a sad, almost pitying expression on his face. Eventually, he looked away from her and looked back to me.

"We all have things we want to fight for Percy. I've caught a glimpse of the path you're trying to go down, and she will suffer".

I didn't bother to ask what "she" Apollo was talking about. We both knew.

"Percy, I know this is hard, but it's for the best. Unnecessary pain and loss will be prevented if we can get just a little more time to prepare for this prophecy. This is the better alternative, trust me".

I turned to look at my friends, my family, and everyone I had come to cherish in this hellhole I'd called life for the past sixteen years of my life. I knew what I had to do.

"Apollo, I know what I need to do. Unfreeze them," I said grimly, and Apollo nodded, snapping his fingers.

* _Snap*_

"No?" Zeus's voice boomed.

It was funny. Just a second ago, the king of the gods had stood there before me, helpless and frozen in place with his mouth hanging wide enough for flies to go in and out of, and then there he went, back to his normal towering self. It was almost as if the moment between Apollo and I had never happened, but it had. I knew it had because I could see it on the grim expression on Apollo's usually cheery face.

"I mean yes," I said to Zeus, shifting my gaze from Apollo's.

"Yes?" Zeus asked.

I took a deep breath.

"Yes, I want to be a god," I told the Lord of the Sky even though "want" wasn't really the word I should have used. "Have to do this for the greater good of mankind" would have been more on point of what I was feeling at that moment.

I heard a female's breathing hitch behind me, and even though I knew that what I was doing was for her sake, I still couldn't help the guilty feeling that washed over me as I forced myself not to turn around and look at her because I knew that if I did, all of my resolve would crumble. Instead, I looked straight up at the king of the gods, the lord of the skies, my uncle, Zeus.

"Then so be it," announced Lord Zeus as he looked around the room at all of the rest of the Olympians before he turned his gaze back towards mine, looking me dead in the eye. His electric blue eyes were the last thing I saw before everything went black, and Annabeth's quiet sob was the last thing I heard and felt before I hear and felt nothing at all.

 **Another Author's Note: Okay, so that was the end of the first chapter. I'm sorry that a lot of it was actual reference back to** _ **The Last Olympian,**_ **but I needed to set the scene. Anyway, read and review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: First off, I want to thank everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed my last chapter. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I enjoyed reading your comments and considered what you all had to say. Anyway, on with the second chapter.**

Chapter 2: Mortality Vs. Immortality  
(a.k.a. What Makes You You)

"Perrrccy! Hey, wake up Seaweed Brain," a familiar voice laughed as they playfully shook my shoulders.

"Wise Girl?" I asked, rubbing my eyes as I picked myself up from the extremely comfortable position I had been laying in (honestly, why do people always have to come and wake you when you're most comfortable?).

"Who else would it be, Kelp Head?" Annabeth asked. Then her stormy grey eyes narrowed in an over exaggerated manner so I knew she was joking, "Why, were you expecting to see any other girls here?"

"No," I chuckled.

Looking around, I was surprised to see where we were: sitting in the sand near the summer cabin me and my mom used to go to at Montauk. It was midday, the sun was out without a cloud in the sky, and the water was perfectly calm. Annabeth's hair was in a ponytail tucked underneath her Yankee's cap (though, strangely enough, she was not invisible), and she was wearing her normal faded orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt with shorts – meaning she was dressed exactly how I liked her best, like herself. There was even a tray of freshly baked blue cookies with blue milk beside me.

"Mrugh re gruing ere?" I asked with a mouthful of cookies (because once I saw the cookies, I had to have them) which translates as "What are we doing here" in civilized talk.

She giggled at the ridiculous way I probably looked (or she may just have been laughing at me in general) before her expression grew thoughtful.

"Well, why do you think we're here?" Annabeth asked me much in the same way she would when we would work on homework together and she didn't want to come straight out and answer the questions for me.

I thought about it for a second because I knew that if Annabeth thought I at least tried to answer the question, she would most likely cave and give me the answer.

"Well, judging from the blue cookies, our location, and the fact that you're here, "I gestured to Annabeth here which earned me a blush from her, "I would think that I must have died when trying to become a god and am in an Elysium of sorts".

"That was a pretty good deduction Percy, but it's not right".

"Then where am I? You're the smart one, Wise Girl. This is why I need you," I said, making puppy dog eyes and the most pitiable pout anyone had ever seen. Annabeth didn't stand a chance against my skills.

"Stop it," Annabeth said, rolling her eyes at my over-dramatic behavior. " You're essentially at a crossroads Percy".

"A crossroads?" I asked, shedding my puppy pout for a more serious expression.

"Yes. I mean, look around you and what do you see?" Annabeth continued.

I looked at the now empty tray of blue cookies, the water, the cabin, and my very own wise girl. "I see some of the things I care about most in this world," I answered.

"Exactly. You see Percy, what you're looking at are representations of the things that tether you most to the mortal world – the things you have to let go of to become a god".

I looked around. What she was saying made sense, but if that was the case, then why wasn't my mom there? Why weren't all of my friends there?

"I know, you're wondering why I'm the only one here, right?"

How did she do that?

"Look, not everything you care about is here, but there is something here to represent everything you most care about. Does that make sense?" she asked.

Seeing my confused expression, Annabeth sighed and continued, "You see where we are?" I did. "It represents the places you cared the most for as a mortal. The places that meant the most to you. Montauk was where your parents first met. It's where your mom used to take you all the time as a child. It holds more significance to you than anywhere else in the mortal world, which is why it's here".

"In the same sense, the cookies signify the things you loved most as a mortal. Blue foods were something you and your mother shared as well as something that made you you".

"Finally, there's me." At this point, Annabeth pointed to herself. "I represent all of the people you loved as a mortal. I was your first real love, your best friend, your Wise Girl, someone you truly cared about".

"Everything here represents what you have loved and cherished most in your mortal life because these are the things that make you you. These are the things that make you a mortal, a human. To become a god, you have to shed that which makes you mortal".

"So, is this a test?" I asked.

"In a way, yes. All that you see is what you're giving up to become immortal. You have to make the choice to leave here, to give up your mortality".

"How do I do that?" I hadn't seen any exits earlier.

"You have to let go," Annabeth told me, looking me in the eyes and showing me a glimpse of her emotions through her beautiful grey eyes. She didn't want me to become a god just as much as the real Annabeth did.

"You're not the real Annabeth, right?" I asked her because, even though she looked and acted so much like the Wise Girl I knew, she couldn't have been her.

"Technically, no. I am a reflection of her created from your imagination," she told me. "But I'm sure you already figured as much".

"I did, but it just doesn't make sense how you... I mean, what I do or don't do doesn't really affect you much either way, does it?"

"It doesn't, but I'm a reflection of Annabeth Chase, and she loves you, so…"

"Oh…" I replied dumbly.

"So how do I 'let go'?" I asked, changing the topic back to the situation at hand.

"Let go of all of that which makes you mortal, and just let yourself fade away."

I thought about this for a second before I decided to lie down. I stayed there for a while, arms propping my head, looking at the world created from my imagination and taking it in. This would be the last time I'd probably ever see something so perfect since I would never be going to Elysium.

It was difficult, to say the least, thinking about everything I would be leaving behind, but I realized that I would have to make peace with them before I could let go. I thought about my mom, about Paul, about Annabeth, about Grover, about Chiron, about Nico, about Thalia, about Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and even about Clarisse; about Montauk, my cabin back at Camp-Half Blood, and Mom's Apartment in New York, about blue cookies, canoe rides, sodas, the candy from the shop my mom used to work at. One by one, I let go of everything that made me mortal.

"Annabeth?" I said finally. Annabeth's clone, replica, reflection (whatever you want to call her) turned from where she had been sitting, a little ways off from me.

"Yes?" she asked, looking me in the eyes questioningly.

"I know you're not the real Annabeth, but for what it's worth, I'm sorry. To both you and the real Annabeth. I didn't want to leave you".

"I know," she said, smiling sadly at me. "You'll make a great god, Percy".

"Thanks," I said with a smile similar to her own. "Goodbye Wise Girl".

"Goodbye Seaweed Brain".

And with that, I took in a deep breath, closed my eyes, and let myself drift away.

When I opened my eyes again, I was alone in the throne room with Zeus himself.

"You made it back," he said, raising his eyebrows.

"You sound surprised," I replied as I picked myself up off the floor I had passed out on.

"It's rather difficult for one to give up their humanity, even if it's for immortality. Most that make it are at the end of their lives or don't have much keeping them human. Neither of these are true in your case which is why I am surprised", Zeus explained as he picked of a piece of lent from his expensive suit.

"So, what would have happened if I hadn't been able to let go of my mortality?" I asked because it had been something I'd been wondering since Annabeth's reflection had first told me about everything.

Zeus stroked his beard for a moment before saying, "Two things could have happened based on what I have seen in the past. The first is that you would have woken up, and returned here as a mortal, and the second is that you would have stayed asleep, forever in your very own Elysium".

"Wow, so does that mean I'm a god now? I don't feel any different?" I said, looking at my arms and legs to check if they were suddenly golden like Hercules's had been in that one Disney movie I had watched as a kid. They weren't.

Zeus seemed amused as he watched me pat myself down. "You are immortal boy, but you are not yet a god".

I stopped what I was doing and looked Zeus straight in the eye. "Whaaaaattttttt?!"

"A god has certain powers and domains, you don't," he continued.

"But…but why not?!" Seriously, wasn't I supposed to be a god already? Here I had been thinking I was going to get some sort of Old Greek chant or something and powers or something, and I had nothing. Nada. Zilch.

"Don't worry, we gods fulfil our promises," I snorted and crossed my arms at this. "You will become a god, but first you must figure out what kind of god you are".

"So, how do I do that?" I asked, still confused, annoyed, and slightly ticked off that I didn't already have a domain, or even the ability to make a diet coke pop out of thin air.

"You must go on a journey of self-discovery. You are no longer Percy Jackson, the mortal. You are an immortal now. Who you are now has not yet been determined".

"So where will my powers and abilities and godly stuff come from?" I asked.

"Your so-called godly stuff will come along the way in your journey," Zeus answered, rolling his eyes in a childish way that I would have found funny if it weren't for the fact that he could barbeque me on the spot if he wanted to.

"So, wait a minute, I'm going on a quest?" Why could I never ditch the quests? Even as an immortal, I was being forced into that junk.

"Yes, I suppose you could call it that. But I prefer journey because it gives a better connotation to the word. Don't you think?"

"No, not really," I answered honestly. "So, do I get like a prophecy or a time frame or what am I working with here?"

"No boy, there is no prophecy for you now, nor is there really a time frame. However, know this, when you return from your 'quest', there will be a spot for you here on Olympus".

"Thank you Lord Zeus…for everything," I said honestly with a respectful bow. After all, the Lord of the Skies had given me a lot of helpful information. For once, he really did deserve my gratitude.

He nodded at me. "Good luck, young Perseus".

And with that, it was time for me to take off on my quest, journey, whatever you want to call it of becoming the god I was meant to be.

 **Another Author's Note: So, this chapter was kind of long, but I hope you enjoyed it, and I also hope it made sense and didn't have too many grammatical errors. This story will be a weekly updated one, so if you liked it, you should favorite and follow it if you haven't already (come on, you know you want to). Remember to read and review because that's what really keeps this story rolling. Until next week, peace out homies.**


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